Crack in the Pomegranate
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Gwin, Ellen Elizabeth
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<i> Crack in the Pomegranate </i>is a collection of poems divided into five sections with an introductory poem to invoke the muses in the prologue. This collection is an epic that follows a character named Bea. The story begins on earth where the sun does not shine on a town of ruins. Bea spends her time pondering a painting in her bedroom and creating moon gardens, which angels find refuge in. One angel, Uriel, bestows Bea with a quest: to go on an adventure, beginning in the forest, and retrieve the peridot, stone of the sun. Going into a hellish forest, Bea encounters landscapes and creatures unseen before. Aboard a ship, Bea falls into sleepless delirium in the company of a captain. She gains a strong sense that he is the painter of the painting she often ponders in her bedroom back home. Deciding to take a leap of faith together, the two wash ashore to a coastal paradise. Here, day and night coexist, angels sing in harmony, and a kaleidoscope array of flowers bloom beneath a rainbow. An angel, Peter, gifts the peridot to Bea. Riding a rainbow like a slide home, Bea brings the peridot home to the angels. With the sun, heaven exists on earth at last. Most poems are in lyrical form, the section “Salty Rinse” contains moments of prose to mimic prayer and meditation. This collection explores many symbols: the moon, colors, flowers, and more. This collection focuses on rhythm, imagery, and setting moods. Themes this collection focuses on are beauty, joy, art, and community. This collection also acts as a literary celebration of many epics and writers who inspired this work. This alludes to, but is not limited to: Lewis Caroll’s <i> Alice in Wonderland</i>, Dante’s <i> Inferno</i>, Homer’s <i> Iliad</i> and <i> Odyssey</i>, Frank Baum’s <i> The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</i>, Edmund Spenser’s <i> The Faerie Queene</i>, Ovid’s <i> Metamorphoses</i>, Virgil's <i> Aeneid</i>, Longus’ <i> Daphnis and Chloe</i>, John Milton’s <i> Paradise Lost</i>, Margaret Cavendish’s <i>The Blazing World</i>, Madeline Miller’s <i> Circe</i>. As well as writings by Anna Akhmatova, Robert Graves, Mary Oliver, Mallarme, and Sappho. Some artists who helped inspire this collection include: William Adolphe Bouguereau, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso.